Leech, Harrison and Forwood.
The business of the firm of Leech, Harrison and Forwood was mainly that of commission merchants, and receiving cotton and other produce for sale on consignment. It was an old firm with the best of credit, and a good reputation. The business was large but very safe, and we never speculated. I was very proud of the old concern. The business was founded in 1785 by Mr. Leech, who took into partnership Mr. James Harrison, whom I remember as a cadaverous looking old gentleman with a wooden leg, and as he always wore a white cravat his nickname of "Death's Head and a Mop Stick" was not inappropriate. He retired about 1850.
Shortly after I was admitted a partner my father's health became indifferent, and at his wish we bought him out of the firm and took over the business. We decided to also become steamship owners, and by arrangement with a firm in Hartlepool we became the managing owners of several steamers, which we put into the West Indian trade in opposition to Mr. Alfred Holt. We had not been very long in the trade before the principal shippers, Imrie and Tomlinson and Alex. Duranty and Co., also formed a line of steamers, and it seemed at the moment as if we must be crushed out of the trade, the opposition was so formidable; but with the dogged determination so characteristic of my brother Arthur we persevered, and in the end forced both our competitors to join us. We then formed a large company, the West Indian and Pacific Co., which was an amalgamation of the three concerns, my firm retaining the management. The business rapidly grew and separate offices had to be taken. For nine years my brother devoted his time to the management of the steamship company, leaving me to work our own business. It was a heavy responsibility for one so young. Our capital was small, and our business in cotton and in making advances upon shipping property very active, but we were well supported by our bankers, Leyland and Bullins. I was a neighbour of Mr. Geo. Arkle, the managing partner, and shall be ever grateful for the confidence he reposed in us. I remember his sending for me in 1866, telling me that we were face to face with a panic, and as he wanted us to feel comfortable we must cheque upon the bank and take up all our acceptances against shipping property. The system of banking was then very much a matter of confidence. During the whole of my business career we never gave our bankers any security. Mr. Arkle perhaps carried this principle too far. I remember his refusing to open an account for a man who was introduced to my firm by highly respectable people in America, and who had brought with him a draft on Barings for £80,000 as his capital, Mr. Arkle requiring that my brother and I should ask him to open the account as a guarantee to him that we were satisfied as to the man's character, to which he attached more value than to his capital. About the year 1870 we admitted my brother Brittain into partnership. Prior to this we opened a house in Bombay, which was managed by my old school friend, G. F. Pim, who was afterwards joined by my brother George.
We retained the management of the West Indian and Pacific Co. for nine years. The company had prospered under our care, the shares were at a premium, and the directors were willing to renew our agreement; but they wanted my brother Arthur to promise to devote less of his time to politics; this he was unwilling to do, and so our connection ceased. It was an unfortunate thing for the firm, but luckily we sold out our shares at a substantial premium, and formed a new company, the Atlas Company, to run steamers between New York and the West Indies, my brother still devoting his time to the Atlas Company's interests, and I attending to the general business. At this I worked very hard, from early morning to late in the evening, taking only a fortnight's holiday each year. The business of the firm prospered greatly. At first our principal business was receiving consignments of cotton, but these led to such large reclamations, which were seldom paid by the consignors, that we were on the alert to find some other way of working our cotton trade, and a visit I made to Mobile to collect reclamations revealed to me a secret which for years gave us large profits. I stayed in Mobile with a Mr. Maury, and found that he was the holder of a very large stock of cotton, against which he sold cotton for future delivery, which always commanded a substantial premium in New York. When the time for delivery came round, he tendered the cotton he had bought; in this way he made a certain and a handsome profit over and above the holding expenses. What was possible in New Orleans was, I thought, possible in Liverpool, and on my return home we commenced this cotton banking business. It was very profitable, and for some time we had it all to ourselves.
When we started the Atlas Line in New York, we opened a house under the title of Pim, Forwood and Co., Mr. Pim leaving Bombay for New York, my brother George at the same time opening a house for us in New Orleans. George Pim died in 1878, and my brother George moved from New Orleans to New York. Here he remained until 1885, when he entered the Liverpool firm, and my brother Brittain took his place in New York; Brittain retired in 1885.
Looking back over my business career, it was a period of strenuous hard work, but of much happiness and great prosperity. It was always a matter of regret to us that we had not more of the active co-operation of my brother Arthur, who was a man of singular ability and remarkable power of organisation. Unfortunately for the firm, from a very early period in our partnership he devoted most of his time to politics, which led to his eventually becoming a member of the House of Commons, and in a very short period Secretary to the Admiralty. In this office, which he held for six years, he did most excellent work. To use the words of the then First Lord of the Admiralty—Lord George Hamilton—he made it possible to build a ship of war in twelve months when it had previously taken four and five years. The fusion of the Conservative and Unionist parties prevented my brother's advance to Cabinet rank. He was one of the ablest men I ever knew, but he had not the faculty of delegating his work; this and his overmastering determination to carry out everything to which he put his hand, entailed upon him an amount of personal work and thought which few men could have borne, and which in the end proved even more than he could support without loss of nervous power. I was his partner for twenty-five years and we never had a serious difference of any kind. He was a candidate for the representation of Liverpool in Parliament in 1882, but was defeated by Mr. Samuel Smith. He afterwards was elected member for the Ormskirk division, which he represented at the time of his death in 1898. He was made a Privy Councillor and afterwards created a baronet.
Liverpool owes much to him, for in every position which he filled, as Chairman of the Finance Committee and of the Health Committee, and as a Member of Parliament, he did a great work for the city. In politics he was facile princeps, a born leader of men; he built up the Conservative party in Lancashire, and kept it together in face of many difficulties.
It was impossible that a man with such a strong individuality and determination could avoid making some enemies. He always tried to reach his goal by the nearest road, even if in doing so he had to tread upon susceptibilities which might have been conciliated, but withal he was one of the ablest men Liverpool has produced in recent years; he had at heart the good of his native city, and no sacrifice of time or thought was too much if he could only benefit Liverpool or promote the welfare of the Conservative party. His statue, erected by public subscription, stands in St. John's Gardens, and each year on the anniversary of his death a wreath of laurels is placed at its foot by the Constitutional Association—"Though dead, his spirit still lives."
In 1890 I retired from business at the age of 50. I was tired with the fag and toil of twenty-five years' strenuous work, but it was a mistake to retire. The regular calls of one's own affairs are less trying than the irregular demands of public work. Punch's advice to those about to marry, "Don't," is equally applicable to those about to retire from business.